Hamas supports Palestine ‘next to Israel’

The Palestinian government under the Hamas supports the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, according to a message reportedly transferred by Hamas to the European Union via various Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Ynet has learned.

A Palestinian source told Ynet Friday that the message declared the Palestinians’ willingness to openly and officially endorse the establishment of Palestine on the borders of June 1967, as long as they did not have to publicly and officially recognize Israel’s right to exist.

<snip>

The Palestinian cabinet and Hamas hope that the next step after receiving financial aid from Russian and their other allies in the Gulf, an official channel of contact would open with the European Union that will allow renewed funding of the PA.


The source noted that Hamas committed to maintaining calm among the Palestinian factions, and enforcing the Islamic Jihad, which has been responsible for all suicide bomb attacks in Israel in the past year, to refrain from terrorism, on the condition that financial aid was renewed.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad recently reached an understanding that if financial support is resumed, the Jihad would also commit to the cease-fire. The agreement was reached by leaders of the organization abroad, which are generally thought to be more fanatical.



http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3250052,00.html

It would have been nice if they hadn't needed to be hit upside the head with a two by four just to get to that position. Can they even find the 1967 border anymore?

It's kind of like a one step forward, two steps back when it comes to some of these announcements...

Violet...

But thanks for giving an example of the sort of attitude I was talking about in a recent thread. Even if Hamas were to renounce violence, there'd be folk who'd either pretend they never said it or claim that they didn't mean it...

Violet...

story too much credence. Meanwhile we have this from BTA's thread:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/714993.html
snip
Speaking at the end of a two-day conference in Qatar, Meshal, who is based in Damascus, said Hamas could close ranks with Fatah on the platform of "liberating Palestine, not recognizing Israel and adopting the path of jihad and resistance."

The conference - a gathering of Islamic scholars to discuss the Palestinian question - issued a final statement supporting "the right of the Palestinian people ... to wage holy war to regain all their homeland and liberate their land from the river to the sea."

The phrasing means that the conference does not recognize the right of Israel to exist - a position at variance with Fatah.

Meshal made no reference to the 18-point plan between Hamas and Fatah leaders imprisoned in Israel that was announced earlier Thursday, leaving observers with mixed messages about Hamas' position on the 1967 cease-fire lines.
snip

when part of the wording is "as long as they do not have to publically and offically recognize israels right to exist" that the key on the israeli side of the whole situation.

they're still just sorting through their new found responsability.....they still dont really control the areas...so when one side says one thing, the other half says another and still another does something else......

this is going to take sometime....